Migrant workers hard to find

Raids on illegal immigrants creating fear, Michigan farmers say.

Raids on illegal immigrants creating fear, Michigan farmers say.

October 21, 2006

GRAND RAPIDS (AP) -- Farmers say worries about possible immigration raids have created a shortage of migrant workers in western Michigan this fall, leading them to share the available laborers. "It's been tight," Don Rasch, a farmer in Kent County's Alpine Township, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Thursday. "I think there's a lot of fear in the labor force." Teresa Hendricks, director of the Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance Project Inc., said she agrees that immigration sweeps and rumors of sweeps are keeping workers out of the region. "There is definitely a sense of fear, especially on the west side of the state," said Damien Sanchez, a lawyer for the Grand Rapids organization. Fueling that fear are news stories about sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. In a five-day sweep last month, agents arrested 55 fugitive illegal immigrants in western Michigan who had disappeared after receiving deportation orders. The sweep was part of a national effort, dubbed "Operation Return to Sender," that has led to 2,179 arrests since June. The initiative, which specifically targets lawbreakers, has been a success, said Detroit-based ICE spokesman Gregory Palmore. "We'll be back, that's for sure," he said. Richard Kessler, a Grand Rapids lawyer who specializes in immigration law, said the operation's speed and aggressiveness concern him. He said people are scheduled to be deported who might not have exhausted all of their legal options. "By the time you get the paperwork, they may already be back in Mexico or wherever," Kessler said. The labor shortage is expected to affect consumers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that prices for fruits and vegetables will rise about 4.3 percent in 2006 compared with a 2.1 percent increase in 2005, in part because of scarcity of migrant workers. The department reports that the number of hired workers is down 11 percent from last year. Al Dietrich, owner of Ridgeview Orchards in Conklin, said the raids have left growers like him scrambling to find enough migrant workers. He usually employs 120 or more workers but this year has hired only about 60. "We've been way down," Dietrich said. One illegal immigrant, Jeronimo Orrosouieta-Noyola, said he has been sent back to Mexico about 20 times but it's worth it to come back. He said he sends nearly all the money he earns to his family in Mexico. As long as there is work and money to be made, he said, no border fence or wall will stop him or others like him from returning to the United States.